Environment + Climate

Expanding customer access to energy data can bring cleaner, more efficient power to Californians, save money and boost emerging clean technologies, according to a new report by the Climate Change and Business Research Initiative, a partnership between UCLA and UC Berkeley schools of law.

The scientists resolved a dispute over whether a small population of black-headed squirrel monkeys, which are found only in an isolated part of Brazil, is a sub-species of another species or its own species.

A new UCLA-led study illuminates a vast network of little understood rivers and streams flowing on top of Greenland’s ice sheet.

People told how much cancer-causing pollution they could prevent were more likely to change their power usage than people told how much money they could save.

The year 2014 featured the debut of a multi-year fundraising campaign, research breakthroughs, stunning achievements by students and faculty — and an unexpected flood that impacted the campus for months. We call that a momentous year.

Biologists with the UCLA La Kretz Center for California Conservation Science recently went on a rescue mission to save endangered turtles that have become dehydrated, emaciated and stressed-out by the extended drought.

Climate model simulations of the 21st century show little change in total precipitation, but more rain instead of snow, posing flooding risk and shortening chance to capture water.

A UCLA environmental law clinic coaches students to become legal advisers and official delegates to the annual United Nations climate conference

Using UCLA environmental research, the Los Angeles City Council passed a motion to develop a program to improve energy and water conservation efforts in city buildings that consume the most resources.

Two UCLA School of Law professors say the recently announced agreement between China and the United States to cut pollution could be a game changer.

At a climate change conference on campus today, UCLA researchers and other speakers are discussing the challenges facing cities around the world.

Plants worldwide are more sensitive to drought than many scientists realized. The research may improve predictions of which plant species will survive climate change.

A UCLA scientist was part of a team of that resolved an 80-year-old mystery about whether frogs in and around New York City were, in fact, their own unique species.

UCLA joins the Billion Dollar Green Challenge with a $15 million fund dedicated to sustainability projects. The savings created by each project will help support the next.

The Burkle Global Impact Initiative, which was created at UCLA to educate the public about international and humanitarian affairs by working within the creative community, helped produce a video for the United Nations Climate Summit that took place Tuesday in New York.

Thomas Smith of the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability says the next great extinction could be upon us, but humans can help threatened species survive.

Old batteries will likely have 70 to 80 percent capacity remaining after we replace them, potentially providing a future energy source.

Bruins and off-campus visitors tooled around north campus on Tuesday in Teslas and other electric vehicles during UCLA's Drive an Electric Vehicle event, part of National Drive Electric Week. Guests test-drove the Nissan LEAF, Chevy Volt and other vehicles.

UCLA atmospheric scientists were instrumental in the creation of the Santa Ana Wildfire Threat Index, which will help classify the fire threat potential of the Santa Ana winds.

Report by the Climate Change and Business Research Initiative at the UCLA and UC Berkeley law schools suggests that used electric vehicle batteries may be a promising solution to California's search for cheap energy storage.

UCLA professor Tom Smith says human-driven evolution is creating drug-resistant diseases, pesticide-proof bugs and mass extinctions due to climate change. "We can either choose to manage evolutionary processes or not, but evolutionary change will proceed regardless."

Drug-resistant diseases, pesticide-resistant bugs and animals threatened by climate change are signs of human-driven evolution getting out of control. A multi-university team calls for solutions.

Next month, Professor Stephen Hubbell will become the first American in 40 years to receive a Scientific Achievement Award from the International Union of Forest Research Organizations.

California has reaped huge benefits from the law that directs oil and gas drilling royalties to water and land protection, and Congress must commit to reauthorizing it.

Six proposals led primarily by UCLA units are vying with 261 others for grant funding by the Goldhirsh Foundation, which is hoping to jump-start projects that will make L.A. the best place to play, to connect, to live, create and learn by 2050.